The Encyclopedia of Arda - an interactive guide to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien
Dates
Orcs were known to inhabit the northern Misty Mountains as far back as the middle of the Second Age, but the term 'Northerners' is recorded exclusively at the end of the Third Age
Location
The northern Misty Mountains1
Race
Culture
Settlements
Those recorded in the War of the Ring originated in Moria
Other names

Indexes:

About this entry:

  • Updated 31 July 2019
  • Updates planned: 1

Northerners

Goblins from the Mines of Moria

The name used in southern lands for Orcs from farther north. In particular, it was used to describe a band of more than a hundred lesser Orcs from Moria that took part in the Breaking of the Fellowship and the capture of Merry and Pippin, and who were later slaughtered by the Rohirrim.


Notes

1

In older times, the Northern Orcs were found throughout the Misty Mountains, as far as Gundabad and Angmar in the far North of the range. After the Quest of Erebor passed through the mountains in III 2941, this situation changed. Many of the Orcs of the northern mountains fought in the Battle of Five Armies and were decimated, while those remaining among the Misty Mountains were hunted by Beorn and his followers.

At the time of the War of the Ring, few Orcs remained northward of the Mountains of Moria (and indeed those who took part in the capture of Merry and Pippin explicitly said that they had come from Moria). 'Northereners' in this sense, then, refers to the fact that these Orcs came from farther North than Isengard, not that they inhabited the abandoned northern reaches of the Misty Mountains.

Indexes:

About this entry:

  • Updated 31 July 2019
  • Updates planned: 1

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